The AMP Scholarships National Awards Recipient List is in

4 December 2014

From a Violinist to a Forensic Scientist: The AMP Scholarships National Awards Recipient List is in

Fifteen awards were handed out tonight at the AMP Scholarships National Awards evening held at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, where recipients mixed with New Zealand’s business leaders.

AMP New Zealand Managing Director Jack Regan was delighted to award $200,000 in scholarships to passionate and determined New Zealanders striving to ‘do their thing’. Recipients were determined by a judging panel led by Dame Rosanne Meo (DNZM, OBE), Professor Ted Zorn (Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the College of Business at Massey University), 42 Below co-founder Justine Troy, former-MD of Saatchi & Saatchi Mike Hutcheson, AMP’s Chief Operating Officer Kevin Bouchier and AMP’s Chief Customer Officer Jeff Ruscoe.

AMP’s Chief Customer Officer, Jeff Ruscoe comments, “Every year we receive such a diverse range of applications. This year is no exception, with the common thread being that every recipient tonight has shown total dedication, commitment and focus to their own special talent or life goal. It’s exciting to be able to help them on their path to success and to achieve their dreams.”

The complete list of AMP Scholarship recipients follows:

AMP National Scholarship recipients each received $10,000:
• Lou James will be working towards giving all New Zealanders affected by cancer treatment the opportunity to rehabilitate through physiotherapy and a chance to improve their quality of life.
• Sacha Earnest, who is just eight years old, aims to compete at the UCI 2015 BMX World Championships in Belgium, defending two world championship titles and promoting the sport of BMX to Kiwi girls.
• Eldon Tate aims to create a solar-powered water treatment system using unique nano-composite materials he has created in his research to generate clean drinking water.
• Jenny McDowell, a shark attack survivor, wants to use forensic science to identify victims of disaster and tragedy, becoming a world expert in marine forensics and the first in New Zealand to obtain international accreditation in forensic anthropology.
• Olivia Francis will use her award to become a world-class violinist, completing a Master of Performance at the Royal College of Music in London, with the aim of having a career in international music.
• Steve Hathaway wants to enhance New Zealand’s brand by filming and creating stories from our underwater world to inspire kids everywhere to love the ocean.
• Mel Hillier aims to make a difference in the lives of Christchurch’s under-privileged children by increasing the capacity of after school care facility, The Palace, through offering a free school holiday programme for children who don’t get the same opportunities that other kids get.
• Elizabeth Cui will work towards competing at this year’s World Junior Diving Championships in the aim of reaching the Olympic Games and making New Zealand proud.
• Jessie Wong will use her AMP Scholarship to establish a line of bags, wallets and clothing under her fashion label, Yu Mei, which focuses on using premium New Zealand deer leather. She will then aim to forge a footprint on the international fashion scene.

Further to the above, the judges also provided Lou James and Eldon Tate with additional business support and mentoring to the value of $4,000 each to help them achieve ‘their thing’.

Other recipients included:
• AMP Study Start Scholarship recipient Callum Riddington, was awarded $10,000 to further his quest to become New Zealand's first Unmanned Aerial System engineer. Callum has been researching and developing a complete unmanned aerial system for his College for the purpose of aerial filming school events, search and rescue following natural disasters in the Pacific and agricultural and environmental monitoring. He is ready to take his knowledge to a wider audience and the Scholarship will enable him to study engineering with a major in software engineering.

• Overall AMP Regional Scholarship recipient William Pike (Rothbury Auckland Regional Scholarship recipient) was awarded an additional $5,000 from AMP, bringing his award total to $10,000 (he was already awarded $5,000 for the Rothbury Auckland Regional Scholarship). The money will go towards setting up the William Pike Challenge Award (WPCA), a youth development programme, in one or more schools in the region, to inspire young New Zealanders and encourage them to have a passion for life and the great outdoors.

• Lastly, the AMP People Scholarship recipient is competitive fitness athlete Paul Kennerley, who was awarded $5,000. He aims to be the first Kiwi to compete at the World Bodybuilding Fitness and Fashion championships in Las Vegas in 2015 in the muscle model division.

The judges also presented Highly Commended awards to three additional finalists. Each will receive business planning support and mentoring (to the value of $4,000 each):
• Annemiek Weterings wants to grow her business by designing custom fitted swimwear that gives confidence no matter the person’s size or shape.
• Bronson Wharehinga aims to utilise non-edible by-product from kina, paua and seaweed, turning it into 100% organic product such as fertilizer, compost and other solutions.
• Peter-Clinton Foaese wants to establish the 'Dream Academy', supporting suicidal youth to identify their dream then connect them to people, experiences and resources to live them.

For more information, visit doyourthing.co.nz.

About AMP:
• AMP is a leading wealth management and insurance provider in the New Zealand marketplace and has been supporting the financial welfare of customers for 160 years
• Our customers hold more than 870,000 investment, savings and insurance products
• AMP has one of the largest networks of advisers in New Zealand
• AMP is the only default KiwiSaver provider with both a ‘silver’ rating from Morningstar and a 5 Star Canstar Award
• AMP has approximately 260,000 KiwiSaver Scheme members and more than $3 billion funds under management, equating to around 14% market share
• We’ve awarded more than $1.8 million in the last 16 years through our AMP Foundation
• In 2013 we:
-- helped more than 1,800 kiwis buy their first home through KiwiSaver
-- paid out $46.75 million in general insurance claims
-- supported approximately 73,000 New Zealanders who were unable to work because of an injury or illness by paying out nearly $9 million in income protection insurance
-- wrote $644 million in new mortgages, and
-- provided advice over the phone to more than 150,000 New Zealanders – more than 400 people per day.

ENDS

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